Iran restores access to Gmail

Iran has restored access to the Google email service and search engine, a week after imposing restrictions on the secure version of the sites.

Google's video-sharing site, YouTube still remains unavailable. It has been blocked in Iran since 2009.

Speaking on the ban, Iran's telecommunications ministry committee said: "We wanted to block YouTube, and Gmail was also blocked, which was involuntary."

"We do not yet have enough technical know-how to differentiate between these two services," said Mohammad Reza Miri.

He added: "We absolutely do not want YouTube to be accessible. That is why the telecommunications ministry is seeking a solution to fix the problem to block YouTube under the HTTPS [Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure] protocol while leaving Gmail accessible.

Last week's ban coincided with protests across the Muslim world against an anti-Islamic film posted on YouTube.